


Eye for an Eye

by faintwalker



Category: Itsuwaribito Utsuho
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Could have conceivably been called Yakuma's Suffering and so are Some Other People, Ending Should be Happy, Gen, I just really wanted to use that tag okay, Injury Sharing, No Beta We Die and Return Like Hikae, Platonic Soulmates, That Past Iriya & Utsuho is Important Here, but I already had a good title, further tagging later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 12:00:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25969318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faintwalker/pseuds/faintwalker
Summary: "The boy who carries in the town’s chief retainer is pink and peeling nearly everywhere Yakuma can see, with pitted, blistering skin fading into something more resembling a mildly serious sunburn as it heals."Soulmates aren't very common, but the development of a soulbond between two individuals is generally seen as something to celebrate.  It's never easy to see someone you care for injured, but to know someone out there truly feels and understands your pain...Well.  It's easy to see why many people find comfort in it.
Relationships: Azako Utsuho & Ponpokorii Chitchoriina the Third | Pochi, Azako Utsuho & Yakuma Koshirou, Iriya & Utsuho (past), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Eye for an Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Quick worldbuilding notes: soulbonds only form between people who have interacted. It usually takes some time for them to show up. If soulmate A gets injured, a weaker, faster-healing form of the injury will appear on soulmate B. 
> 
> In the end notes, you can find information on where each scene is placed along the canon timeline. Canon injuries? Utilized in my soulmate AU? It's more likely than you'd think.

His second largest error of calculation in the situation was undoubtedly Iriya’s proximity. Perhaps the specifics of when didn’t matter.

~ ~ ~

# # #

The boy who carries in the town’s chief retainer is pink and peeling nearly everywhere Yakuma can see, with pitted, blistering skin fading into something more resembling a mildly serious sunburn as it heals. Of what is exposed, only the right half of his face is unscathed, and the slant of his headband may be indicative of damage to his left eye. His state may look rather alarming to the townspeople, but, as a doctor, Yakuma can tell there is no immediate concern. The chief retainer will be another matter entirely if Yakuma doesn’t see to him quickly.

After the chief retainer has been treated, Yakuma takes the time to check in with the boy.

“Do you need looking over? Infections are a risk if you’re the source person,” he says.

“Nah,” says the boy, “this was someone else’s. You should’ve seen the other guy, though.” He smiles, but it doesn’t reach the barely-open eye he has visible. “I got off lightly enough.”

“Other?” Yakuma asks. “Are there more injured?”

The boy gives one quick shake of his head, saying, “None injured but me.”

# # #

Yakuma can taste blood in his mouth as Utsuho collapses by the pit’s edge. It’s horrible and sudden, a shock even though it shouldn’t be. Utsuho is a fool for not running. He’s a fool and he’s dead for no reason; stuck in this pit as he is, Yakuma’s going to die anyway. Utsuho should’ve run. He should have.

He shouldn’t have died for Yakuma.

“...Here!” Yakuma says. “Come down here!”

He’s going to die in this pit, angry and useless. It won’t be long now, with no one left to shield him.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson!”

It’s a hopeless situation. He’s going to die. All he has left are his words and the guilty feeling of blood on his tongue.

# # #

Utsuho pulls him from the pit with warm, living, unpunctured hands, his smile bright and still a bit bloody. He doesn’t offer any insults. Yakuma can’t think of what to say.

“I’m going after him. Do you need to patch yourself up, or are you coming?” Utsuho asks.

Senbon may be painful, but they aren’t overly damaging. The risk of tearing muscles through movement has been eliminated since Yakuma has already pulled them all out.

Utsuho is free of senbon too, but they’ve left behind their marks. Bloody trails stain his arms and chin. There’s blood on his hand as well, but that’s from grabbing Yakuma. He’s barely injured, all things considered. Not dead after all, thanks to a guess and getting lucky.

(Utsuho didn’t run.)

(Yakuma got lucky.)

“I’m good,” says Yakuma. “What are you going to do about the poison? Do you have any more of that antidote?”

“No, but we won’t need it. The poison isn’t serious, and it’ll wear off soon anyway,” Utsuho says, “so we’d better hurry after that guy while we still have the advantage.”

# # #

~ ~ ~

Utsuho takes off running as soon as he hears of Pochi’s abduction. A sudden pain shoots up his spine and across the back of his head-- oh, _Pochi!--_ and he staggers, nearly losing his footing. He has to hurry, so he can’t afford to stop and check for blood. Pochi must be found before it’s too late.

The pain fades quickly into a dull ache as he runs. Utsuho tells himself it’s a good sign. When he reaches the clearing, Pochi is alive and well in a stranger’s arms.

~ ~ ~

“Blow myself up?! Utsuho, have you _seen_ yourself?” says Yakuma.

Utsuho feels the ice in his chest thicken as he fights the urge to laugh again. He’s smiling so wide it hurts.

“That was someone else, remember?” he says. “I know what I’m doing with explosives, so there’s no way I’ll die. I’ll manage without much trouble, you’ll see. Just wait here.”

Ignoring Neya’s protests, Utsuho turns to leave. As he does so, Yakuma says, “If-- if this is something you feel you have to do because you weren’t there when your so--”

“I was there,” says Utsuho, cutting him off. “Safely out of the blast radius. We’re running out of time here, so I’ll see you later.”

~ ~ ~

The first large town they pass through after leaving Nadeshiko Island has a pretty impressive market. There isn’t much Utsuho needs, per se, but browsing the wares might lead to him finding something good for using in his tricks. He’s making an enjoyable late morning of it.

Pochi shows interest in some dried fruit, which Utsuho happily purchases. As Pochi squeaks with delight, Utsuho turns and nearly collides with Yakuma.

“Standing a bit close, aren’t you?” Utsuho asks, swiftly sidestepping to avoid toppling from his own momentum.

“Sorry about that. It wasn’t my intention,” says Yakuma. “I just wanted to make sure you’d noticed something before you go running off again. That stall there,” he says, pointing, “is selling black bandages.”

“Okay?” Utsuho says. “I don’t need them.”

Yakuma frowns a little, saying, “But I thought your soulmate was…” He gestures vaguely from Utsuho’s head to his feet. “You know. Not… around.”

“Yeah, he’s dead,” says Utsuho, “but I’m not in mourning. Fancy bandages would just be a pain, and besides, I’m mostly healed, right? Only a bit pink.”

Utsuho is definitely feeling much better than he was those first few weeks after the blast. Three days back his depth perception finally cleared up, so he’s been able to return his headband to its usual style instead of wearing it at a tilt. In certain light, he can look at his arms and almost not notice the color. Two more weeks and he thinks his face will look normal again, or close enough to it. His hair always throws him off when he looks at his reflection anyway, so it’s not like a slowly-fading scar bothers him all that much.

Yakuma is still frowning. “It’s not about the money, is it?” he asks.

“It’s not,” says Utsuho, before Yakuma can offer to pay. Yakuma’s coin is better spent on treats to be shared with Pochi. “This is my choice. He would understand.”

~ ~ ~

# # #

Yakuma is in the middle of explaining the medication dosage to the sick girl’s brother when the left side of his face starts smarting out of nowhere. It feels like he’s been… not punched, not quite, but hit with _something,_ certainly.

“Agh,” he says, rubbing his swelling cheek. It doesn’t make any sense. To the boy, he says, “Sorry, hold--”

His chin bursts into pain, shutting him up. Blood wells from his tongue, and--

And he isn’t the one getting attacked, that much is clear. The question is, who is? Yakuma hadn’t realized he had someone like this out there.

Utsuho and Neya are the first to come to mind, because it wouldn’t be Lady Kohi. Yakuma has spent enough time at the palace to be sure. There isn’t really anyone else in his life unless he counts Pochi, and his traveling companions do make a bit of sense, all things considered. They’re up there dismantling a cult, and Yakuma should’ve realized that such a thing could turn into trouble. He needs to hurry back to them.

“Oh,” says the boy, “your mouth.”

Wiping his chin, Yakuma says, “Yeah, it feels like someone’s in a fight. Your sister should be fine for now, but I think I’ll have to come back and give you the rest of the instructions later.”

“I hope they’re okay,” says the boy.

Offering a reassuring smile, Yakuma packs his box as he says, “They’re pretty tough, so it should be fine. Still, I’d better be going.”

He hurries back through the village and up the hill. While he’s on his way, a cut develops to the right of his sternum. It’s shallow and harmless, but that means whoever is fighting is facing off against weapons. He runs faster. When he’s nearly to the tower’s gate, he starts smelling smoke.

The second floor of the tower is engulfed in flames. Aided by his arrival, Neya is unharmed. In the fire’s flickering light, Utsuho’s left cheek has a darkish mark across it.

Yakuma stands there, torn between surprise at the culprits’ vanishing act and just… surprise. It wasn’t really a bond he’d expected to develop with either of them, but to have Utsuho… as a _soulmate…_

He thinks about it while standing on the guard duty Utsuho assigns to him. Without confirmation, he can’t really be sure. Utsuho’s cheek could still prove to be a coincidence or a trick of the light. Yakuma knows he should be glad to have a soulmate, but if it’s Utsuho, well, Utsuho is… 

Utsuho is Utsuho, and he’s not really what Yakuma would consider proper soulmate material. Soulmates are supposed to _share_ pain, not inflict it upon each other.

It’s possible that it’s a recent development. Utsuho might not know yet.

Or maybe…

(Maybe it only goes one way?)

Distracted as he is, Yakuma fails to prevent the goons’ escape.

# # #

Utsuho’s bruise is a stronger replica of Yakuma’s own. After seeing to the production and distribution of the flyers, Utsuho takes the time to patch a cut in his undershirt-- not very large, and ever-so-slightly on the right. Every once in a while, he breaks into disgruntled muttering. Yakuma figures it’s safer to leave him be.

Their injuries are a match; it’s true no matter how Yakuma looks at it. Prodding at a bruise just above the curve of his pelvic bone, Yakuma thinks back, trying to work out how long they’ve been bonded for. 

Traveling together as they are, fights involving one of them usually involve both. Sore knuckles and bruising to the forearms are therefore useless as potential indicators, seeing as they both get them anyway. Utsuho tends to evade the majority of attacks thrown his way, so it’s not as if he gets injured often to start with. 

Yakuma is confident Utsuho didn’t have any issues with his hand after the incident with Sota and the knife, but he still finds himself thinking back to even earlier.

After the Nadeshiko Island fire, Utsuho had had more burns overall, but some of them had been placed similarly to Yakuma’s, if Yakuma is remembering correctly. That aside, Utsuho had still been healing, and maybe some of his burns… had been a bit like… Pochi’s…

Blood on his tongue. Yakuma remembers, suddenly, the pit. Amidst the horror and hopelessness, the blood had seemed natural, but he hadn’t actually hurt his mouth.

He hadn’t, but Utsuho had. Yakuma had thought him dead in the moment, and, when someone’s soulmate dies, it’s hardly like they stand there with only a slight increase in injuries. The senbon caught between Utsuho’s teeth could be an explanation, one that Yakuma had initially dismissed with the state of Utsuho’s hands and the knowledge of how slim the probability had been. He’d barely known Utsuho. There had been no reason to form a personal connection.

It’s just a guess, and part of Yakuma hopes it isn’t true. That incident was quite some time back. Utsuho has his habits, and maybe it’s behavior Yakuma can accept from a friend, but… 

Thinking about it won’t change anything. Yakuma is pretty sure he’ll be sharing Utsuho’s injuries going forward, so he should account for that. Nothing else about this development is practical to dwell on.

Utsuho might not acknowledge it, but the recent death of his soulmate is probably still difficult for him. He might not be ready to embrace having a new one. It might be best for Yakuma to hold off on telling him.

The bruise on Yakuma’s hip is from a collision with Utsuho’s heel a few days back. Prodding at it again, Yakuma contemplates the possibility of a matching bruise existing on Utsuho.

His chest goes tight.

It doesn’t seem likely.

# # #

**Author's Note:**

> (Yakuma deserves better...) 
> 
> Black bandages are for secondhand wounds that killed a person's soulmate. Light grey bandages are used for normal secondhand wounds, typically. White bandages are for direct wounds (where someone is the source person). 
> 
> Yakuma did go back and give the rest of the treatment plan instructions, if you were wondering.
> 
> Below are my scene placement notes! I am a nerd and I made these for fun. Check out the correlating spots in the manga if you're interested! (Don't forget to imagine Utsuho's healing burn scars, though! Heh heh I am a nice author.) 
> 
> Number = numerical placement of scene in fic, chapter = chapter(s) in canon, pages specify within chapter and count chapter title pages. Rough placement = dialogue and/or actions do not slot in somewhere specifically; more of a general placement. Specific = a specific tie-in point; you can probably find it by looking. 
> 
> 1\. Chapter 1, scenes w/ Iriya at the village previous on timeline.  
> 2\. Chapter 5, pages 9-12 (rough placement).  
> 3\. Chapter 10, pages 12-13 (specific).[Volume two]  
> 4\. Chapter 11 before page 6.  
> 5\. Chapter 16, pages 9-15.  
> 6\. Chapter 19, pages 12-13 (mostly 12) (specific).[Volume three]  
> 7\. Chapter 25, page 3 (specific).  
> 8\. Chapters 29 through 32.[Volume four]  
> 9\. Chapter 33.
> 
> The next chapter starts off with a Neya point of view. Look forward to it!


End file.
